


After Class

by purpleHerald



Category: Homestuck
Genre: College AU, F/F, Humanstuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-01
Updated: 2013-08-01
Packaged: 2017-12-22 02:23:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/907761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purpleHerald/pseuds/purpleHerald
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Very run-of-the-mill Roxy/Calliope humanstuck teacher/student one shot, mainly just for practice. You also might learn something about crocodile digestive systems.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After Class

“... after the food passes through the gullet, it enters the first stomach. This is where you find the gastroliths we talked about earlier, you know, the rocks they eat. The first stomach is very muscular, much like a bird's, and has the gastroliths to make mechanical digestion even more effective. It allows things like bone and feathers to be ground down do much smaller bits, to make it easier to process them in the next stomach.” 

You are bored to death and even your favorite teacher, Ms. Calliope Herschel, is giving one of the most boring lectures imaginable on crocodile digestive systems. Literally nobody in the classroom cares what she's talking about. Most of them still don't know what the difference between a crocodile and alligator is. Maybe the lecture would make more sense if you hadn't been sleeping off a hangover the first hour of the lecture. Calliope was very pleasant to look at though. And listen to. You tried to be on first-name basis with all teachers, most of whom do not appreciate your lack of respect for their position of power but that's besides the point. Calliope was like, early thirties maybe? And she was tiny. Not only standing in front of a huge lecture hall tiny, like petite. 

“The second stomach is smaller, but is more like a classical stomach you and I have. Well, not entirely. A crocodile stomach has the most acidic stomach bile of any animal. It is so acidic that it can completely destroy any bone or feather or anything we humans would have a problem with. This means that the crocodile blah blah bla, blah blah blah.”

Your eyelids start closing on their own again. She has a really cute voice, if it was any other teacher the talking would probably bother you but Calliope had like this really sweet pleasant voice like the kind your girlfriend would have if you were on her lap falling asleep slowly and she was just going on and on about some movie and you'd fall asleep but she'd keep going to make sure she doesn't wake you up. That kind of soft kitten voice. 

You are shaken awake by Dirk who's poking into you with the point of his mechanical pencil. 

“Hey Rox, class is over, Ms. Herch wants to talk to you, maybe because you slept through two questions she asked you.”

“You're what?” you manage to squeeze out. “Dee are you drawing that anime again?”

“When it's drawn it's called a manga. No. And You're supposed to stay behind to talk with teach.” He shoved all his stuff into his backpack and slung it over one shoulder. “Oh and sorry for stabbing you a tiny bit too much.” He said as he handed you a crumpled Kleenex.

Slowly Dirk's words started to make sense and you realize that you might be in a tiny bit of trouble but like, man, who didn't sleep during lectures? Oh but look at her she had her tiny arms crossed that's so cute. Maybe she's going to be all threatening and let out little squeaks and her hair will get all puffy. That would be totally adorable with her short white hair. You've got to ask if that's actually dyed white or just really, _really_ bleached.

You very slowly pack your things, so that there's no way anybody else is in the hall by the time you get down to Calliope. You make your way as slow as you can, carrying your school bag in your hand . You push your hair behind your ears as you approach and try to look more awake than you are. 

“Ms. Lalonde?” Calliope squa- oh my god you know it she's doing the thing, wait no gotta contain yourself. 

“Call me Roxy, please,” you giggle “that way I can call you Calliope and it's not weird, right?”

She let out what seemed to you a sigh of relief, and relaxed her shoulders. She started digging around in her desk drawer. 

“So, what were you drinking last night?” she asked as she handed you a piece of chocolate, after which she put a whole box on the table. “Please, take as many as you want.”

“Haha what?” you deny pathetically. “I, I don't even remember. Listen I'm sorry for dozing off it won't happen again I promise. I'm not drinking for at least, like... a week. Maybe.” 

“Well alright then,” she swallowed and took a short breath, “but you have detention. With me. For the rest of the day.” 

You fight the urge to put your hands to your face, failing miserably. You inhale through your cupped hands and your pupils widen because your teacher crush may just be asking you out. 

“No, sorry, it was rude of me ask. Please, just, just don't tell anyone, I'm really sorry, you can go now,” she said hurriedly, turning around and taking her bag. She started to walk out but you take her hand and peck her on the cheek. 

A silent moment passes, then a few more moments. You're still holding her hand, neither of you knows what to say. You've reached the point of no return. Your head spins, maybe from heat, maybe residual hangover, maybe because you kissed a teacher. 

“We, we probably shouldn't hold hands. Teacher-student stuff can actually cause some pretty serious problems.” she said.

“Yeah,” you quickly pull your hand back. “Um, you forgot these?” you point to the box of chocolates on the table. 

“I got them for you anyway, take them, we'll have them together.”

You walk side by side to the teacher's dorm, in silence, both looking down and away from each other; bags over shoulders. You pass a few people you know to whom you don't even say hello, you pass a few people you don't know to whom you needlessly explain that you're just helping a teacher carry papers. 

She unlocks the door and lets you go in first, but you just stand in the hall because you don't know where to go next. She follows you in and goes towards the door at the far left on the ground floor, trying two keys before getting the right one. The keys are all color coded in neon colors, but it would seem she doesn't really know which color correlates to which door. Or they're just decorative. 

You walk into a small entryway. She takes off her brown leather shoes and puts them next to three pairs of seemingly identical other brown leather shoes. She drapes her dark green jacket on the coat hanger and turns to you but realizes you have only a t-shirt and that should probably stay on for the while being. She guides you in, both of you still silent, and offers you a seat in her modest living room. It's more of an all-purpose room though, because while it does have a small coffee table with cushions around it for sitting, it also has a desk with a monstrous stack of papers and generally more personal things you wouldn't normally find in a living room. There was a large skull mounted on the wall that looked like it belonged to one of those weird crocodiles you found in India, with the strange, long, narrow mouths. There were also ample books lining the bookshelves, some large leather-bound tomes, others less serious stuff like detective novels and a few comic books. 

“Can I offer you some tea? I have English Grey, a variety of green teas, raspberry white, blueberry and cream, berry mix, apple and cinnamon, orange, mint, or I can make you actual fresh mint tea, black lemon-” she listed, stressing each item while trying to remember the next.

“Blueberry is fine. Although they all sound lovely, I might stop by again some time to try something else, how does that sound?”

Calliope let out a muffled squeal and retreated to her kitchen. Her stomach knotted and a shiver ran down her spine causing her to spasm uncontrollably but out of your sight. You were looking around the room more and noticed that the ceiling has a hand painted star map with all the constellations labeled, and even some of the brighter stars. 

After a few minutes, Calliope came back with a tray, upon which sat a large tea pot, two cups and two small bowls with sugar and milk. She poured your cup first, then her own and encouraged you to garnish it as necessary. She added a small splash of milk herself but took no sugar. You do the opposite and take two spoons but no milk.

“So,” you ask with your hands around the cup “you come here often?”

“I live here,” she explained nervously. A smile crawls across your face, you are so glad this is happening. 

“Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't get it! Oh, I must be overworking myself terribly. I've been having problems sleeping and I just, I'm too tired I guess.” She said, blushing strongly. 

You put your hand on hers reassuringly and look her in the eyes, while she tries to avoid eye contact. 

“Then maybe I should stay the night, you know, to make sure you're warm and comfortable.”

You can see every muscle in her body twitch, but after a few moments she relaxes, more than before. Slowly but surely she is growing more comfortable being around you in private, and she's even smiling more

You spend the next five hours getting to know each other on a more personal level, rather than teacher-student. She tells you about her travels around the world, stories from childhood, teachers' gossip about students in exchange for your childhood, student gossip about teachers and your plans for the future.

You get up from the floor and wipe your tears. You've been laughing for at least a decent two minutes, and Calliope sits next to you, smiling to herself with pride over a well told joke. When you come to your senses again, you realize it's dark outside and you've skipped all your classes for today.

With a few remaining faded laughs, you stand up and stretch; Calliope has fed you at least two boxes of cookies during your stay. As you're stretching, you look at the star chart again and your eyes linger for just long enough for Calliope to notice. 

“The sky is clear you know, we could probably go look at the stars outside, you know, for real,” she suggested. You were planning to go home anyway so this might make for a nice goodbye. For now at least. You both live on campus it's not such a nightmare. 

“Yeah okay sure,” you reply, “but we should like take some wine or something don't you think?” 

“Not really,” she explained “I don't have any here, I'm abstinent, sorry, this must come as a huge disappointment to you.” 

“What? No!” you lie. “I think it's cool that you're able to deal with shit without getting drunk.”

“Come on, let's go,” she says, trying to change topic. She offers you her hand and offers you a sweater because it's chilly outside. You accept and while she's in her bedroom, rummaging through shelves for something, you put on your shoes and take your bag. When she comes back she drapes it over your shoulders and puts on slippers. 

She leads you out again through the short hallway and out the front door. The cold night air hits your face as you leave the warm steamy dorm and you realize just how bloated you felt inside. Calliope stands next to you nervously and looks around. After she confirms that there's either nobody around or that they at least can't see you she wraps her arms around you. She points to the sky and announces: “That's where Ophiuchus should be, the thirteenth constellation. You can't really see it, the sky isn't bright enough to see it with your naked eye but it's there.”

You can see nothing but mild dark gray clouds over a pitch black sky, but pretend you totally know what she means. No scratch that you should ask her to explain.

“Cool. What does it do?”

“What do you mean, it's a constellation of stars in the sky, it doesn't, do anything, well, some people believe the prevalent constellation during your time of birth has like some effect on your future or fortune or something,” she trailed off nervously.

“What do you think?” you turn around to face her. You can almost feel the heat from her as blood rushes to her cheeks, providing a nice contrast with the cold breeze.

“Umm, well I,” she looks at you as if she were seeking approval, “don't think that stars affect our lives, like they're just stars and far away, but that doesn't mean I don't like the mythology or that they're not pleasant to look at, even though it's cloudy right now so we can't see a thing. If it was clear I could show you all the constellations and tell you about them, but, you probably don't want to hear that.”

The cold starts getting to you and you get goosebumps on your legs and start to shiver just a tiny bit. 

“Umm, would you mind if,” you suggest, “I slept over here? It's really cold and my classes don't start until eleven so I could spend it with you, unless you're busy?”

It was difficult for you to not notice Calliope's excitement; her posture improved, her stomach flexed, still in the tight white button-up, her toes curled up inside her slippers and her lower lip began to quiver. You take the opportunity and kiss her, right there, outside in front of maybe someone, probably no one, spot on the mouth. You put your hands around her and feel her get weak.

“Let's go back in,” you say through a wide smile as you pull away from her.


End file.
